Journey Early Access and Pre-Order Program

If you have been following Journey, then you’re probably as excited as I am about its release next week on March 13, as the first game in our Spring Fever event this year. The reviews so far havebeenfantastic, and I can’t wait to get online and experience the game online with other Journey fans.

If you caught Friday’s update from Kellee, the last line of her post about big news coming Monday probably had you wondering what sort of news might be coming. Well, earlier this morning I’m sure you saw this month’s PS Plus blog post revealing that Journey will be available this week for all PS Plus members, one week ahead of the normal release date. What’s more, this early access purchase comes with a bonus, an exclusive PS3 dynamic theme featuring some concept art from the game.

And if you’re not a Plus member, we are also launching a special pre-order program as well. You’ll be able to put your money down for the game and get hold of the same concept art dynamic theme as Plus members for doing so. Then when the game hits on March 13 during the normal Tuesday publish, just head to the store and download the game for free.

Watch the Blog and PS Store, because we’ll have a few more videos for Journey, an additional dynamic theme (free for Plus members) that will showcase some of the beautiful vistas in the game, and more. We’re also launching a dedicated tab for Journey on the PlayStation Facebook page where you can get an exclusive Journey PSN Avatar starting today, so head on over to check it out.

And don’t forget to head over to the Journey live dev chat page to sign up for a reminder, and come back this coming Friday at 10 AM PST to chat live with Jenova Chen (Creative Director) and Robin Hunicke (Executive Producer) from the Journey dev team.

pre-order? you know this is a digital download right? the whole point of pre-ordering is to make sure the store will get enough copies shipped (like with popular games that go fast) that youll be able to get one. do you get it early or something?

I want to get this, but I’m still waiting on Sony to send me my $20 PSN code for getting second in the Mod Nation tournament at the Vita Hill in Chicago a couple weeks ago. Sent them an email and haven’t heard back yet.

Let me get this straight? For the last four years Ive had to deal with MICROSOFT and their timed exclusive deals on downloadable games always coming to PS3 a month, three months and a year later. Sony MUST know how much that pisses off its user base, yet they do nothing about it. So now here we are with probably the ONLY title coming to PSN worth paying for and you decided to treat your smart non-plus members the way Microsoft treats all your customers. Pathetic!

Its shady deals like this that will always keep Sony in last place. Good job Thatgamecompany, because of this shady deal Im no longer interested in your game. Release it for everybody at the same time or dont bother releasing it at all.

I was blown away by the beta last summer and got lucky to be chosen for it. Journey is the most breathtaking experience I have ever had on my PS3 and I can’t wait for this tomorrow. I’m so glad it is only $14.99 because I was willing to pay $59.99 for it! Amazing offer too, just hurry up with the soundtrack :D

in my year as a plus member i have gotten a ton of free stuff, stacking, crash commando, and the recent simpsons game being some of my favorites, but getting Journey a week early takes the cake as best thing that came out of plus.. counting the hours until tomorrow’s ps store update.

I’m so happy plus members get this early. I actually want them to implement this more, getting games earlier. Some of the games posted free might not be my thing. Maybe some of the discounted items might not be to my liking. Other than that, there’s not much about Plus besides automatic update and cloud saves.

I’ve been saving a special spot in my wallet for this game for months. It’s all about to go down tomorrow =)

I will be 100% certain on buying the soundtrack as well c:

I also just got Timeline used to use those photos =D (and I hardly go on Facebook anymore)

@portstation

uh whoops I think I just said the complete opposite of what you’re thinking! This is a free service. Think of it as a Free-to-play game, you buy a premium membership, you get more features and items. This works the same way. If you don’t have much games in your library (Probably impossible to say after last fall) then I suggest getting Plus. Sometimes I don’t even have time for these free games or just play them once, and it’s totally worth it in the end.

I NEED to know something about this pre-order program. You say that if you pre-order, you get a Journey dynamic theme in addition. The PS+ March Preview mentions that Plus users get a free Journey dynamic theme the week Journey comes out. My question – are these dynamic themes the same?

Yes, standard users can pre-order the game when the store updates, by the looks of it. This pre-order will come with a free theme. Plus users can get Journey a week early and just download the same theme for free off the store when it updates tomorrow.

Portstation3 you should note that for Xbox live you pay 60 bucks for access, and extra if you subscribe to other online services. If you what to watch netflix, for example is 12 dollars a month and not 7. That is pathetic!

PSN Free gives us access to all online services, including Netflix at 7 dollars, amongst others.

Now the premium service for PSN service is 50 bucks and you get free games all the time. Last month was Farcry 2 for example. How much is that on Games on Demand on Xbox live these days?

As for timed exclusives, Microsoft pays a lot for them, probably compromising their own content production, how many games has Microsoft produced or published exclusively last year?

Sony has the best forever exclusive titles and if you think this is the only PSN title worth getting, you shouldn’t own a PS3 anyway.

Very stoked for this. I can’t get the avatar because I’m not on facebook and I frikkin refuse to be! But that’s OK, my choice. I’m not going to cry like some of the big ugly babies/trolls on this blog every day.

I think this post mentions a second dynamic theme, besides the one we get for buying tomorrow. I could be reading it wrong, though. My reading skills aren’t as good since I became a gamer.

An early download, but not a different price, is a very nice, very fair perk for a Playstation exclusive to their Plus subscribers. I have never regretted my Plus, and mine is valid till halfway thru 2014.

@ DZORMAGEN. You should be patient and calm instead of ranting and raving. When the game comes out the PSN store will give you the opportunity to pre -order the game. You have to wait until they actually put the game on PSN to be able to pre-order it. It won’t be available yet until tomorrow. Just be patient.

You’ll be able to keep the game. The ones that expire when you don’t renew are the free ones they give out every month, like Far Cry 2(?) last month. Tomorrow’s Journey release is just early access, you still pay full price and get to keep the game.

You do know that a pre-order is the retailers, in this case Sony’s, way of getting you to purchase the item. You put money down, in this case purchase in full. They have your money and you get a trinket. They claim it’s to know what to order, that isn’t quite true, it locks you into a purchase at their store. You put down money and most of the time the consumer follows though, it’s a sale they can count on for income.

@portsstation3

They didn’t delay the launch by a week to provide the service to PS+, they brought it a week early. I could see the hostility if it was delayed but it wasn’t;or at least that is what they are telling us. This isn’t the first game to have this done either.